Deleting... heads up.
You know how we've never actually deleted accounts that are marked for deletion?

Well, we're going to now. So if you have your account marked for deletion and it hasn't changed state (deleted vs. visible) in the last 30 days, be warned.... it's going away, along with all its content.

I wasn't going to post this warning, but Evan said some people delete their accounts for purposes other than deleting their accounts. (whatever that is?)

But I guess this also means that in a few days all those usernames you've been wanting will be available to go snag. Go snag them if you intend to rename your journal to that, and then I suppose I'll get the username rename thing back in service.

(The motivation for this, btw, is to make the huge change coming up in the next week or two go a bit quicker... we're going to need to alter ~20 tables in the database, and the less data they have in them, the better.)

The actual deletion of users won't happen for a few days. There won't be another warning, though.

(Post a new comment)

	dlbags 2002-01-05 07:19 pm UTC (link)
	ok. (Reply to this)

	evan 2002-01-05 07:21 pm UTC (link)
	You should actually mail everyone who has marked their account for deletion with this message-- a lot of people don't read news, and I know of more people who are hiding with the deletion system than people who actually want to lose their journal. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	evan 2002-01-05 07:22 pm UTC (link)
	(While you're at it, you could reclaim all of the unused accounts from squatters...) (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)(Expand)

(no subject) - sonicice, 2002-01-05 07:23 pm UTC (Expand)

(no subject) - evan, 2002-01-05 07:24 pm UTC (Expand)

(no subject) - emmavescence, 2002-01-05 07:40 pm UTC (Expand)

(no subject) - hamsterhuey, 2002-01-05 07:46 pm UTC (Expand)

Re: - emmavescence, 2002-01-05 07:47 pm UTC (Expand)

(no subject) - prawn, 2002-01-06 03:35 am UTC (Expand)

(no subject) - kyrielle, 2002-01-05 07:48 pm UTC (Expand)

Re: - emmavescence, 2002-01-05 07:52 pm UTC (Expand)

(no subject) - hamsterhuey, 2002-01-05 07:59 pm UTC (Expand)

Re: - emmavescence, 2002-01-05 08:14 pm UTC (Expand)

(no subject) - hamsterhuey, 2002-01-05 08:43 pm UTC (Expand)

(no subject) - leora, 2002-01-07 08:42 am UTC (Expand)

(no subject) - emmavescence, 2002-01-05 08:18 pm UTC (Expand)

(no subject) - hamsterhuey, 2002-01-05 08:45 pm UTC (Expand)

Maybe not Satan ... - furcas, 2002-01-05 08:36 pm UTC (Expand)

Re: Maybe not Satan ... - hamsterhuey, 2002-01-05 08:46 pm UTC (Expand)

Re: Maybe not Satan ... - creepystalker, 2002-01-05 08:47 pm UTC (Expand)

(no subject) - maltor, 2002-01-05 08:04 pm UTC (Expand)

(no subject) - kyrielle, 2002-01-05 08:06 pm UTC (Expand)

(no subject) - crichton, 2002-01-05 08:56 pm UTC (Expand)

(no subject) - pinkiekitten, 2002-01-06 06:04 am UTC (Expand)

Ask. - jezredfern, 2002-01-06 03:38 pm UTC (Expand)

Re: Ask. - claireh, 2002-01-06 10:52 pm UTC (Expand)

Re: Ask. - jezredfern, 2002-01-06 11:39 pm UTC (Expand)

(no subject) - niko, 2002-01-08 05:13 pm UTC (Expand)

	what do they use 'em for? goninzo 2002-01-05 07:55 pm UTC (link)
	What DO people use their deleted journals for? I mean, you delete your account for reasons other than deleting your account? wha? anyone? (Reply to this) (Thread)(Expand)

	Re: what do they use 'em for? hamsterhuey 2002-01-05 08:00 pm UTC (link)
	Come! join the forum! we are having an open conversation on LiveJournal as Satan..... or at least i am.... christ i have stupid friends...... anyone wanna yell at them for me? (Reply to this) (Parent)

Re: what do they use 'em for? - mistere, 2002-01-05 08:52 pm UTC (Expand)

Re: i have another solution now - snarble, 2002-01-06 02:26 am UTC (Expand)

Re: i have another solution now - mistere, 2002-01-06 02:46 am UTC (Expand)

Re: i have another solution now - digipete, 2002-01-06 10:09 am UTC (Expand)

Re: i have another solution now - mistere, 2002-01-06 11:46 am UTC (Expand)

Re: what do they use 'em for? - sasha, 2002-01-06 06:26 pm UTC (Expand)

Re: what do they use 'em for? - mistere, 2002-01-06 06:51 pm UTC (Expand)

	rahaeli 2002-01-05 08:00 pm UTC (link)
	Can someone add this to the Known Issues box under support? Nobody ever reads that box, but it might head off one or two complaints. (Reply to this)

Curious dottey 2002-01-05 08:12 pm UTC (link)

I have a question. Say I posted a comment to someone's journal. Then that person has deleted his journal. Has that comment still been showing up in my total number of comments written tally? If the answer to the above question is yes, will my comment (no longer visible once deleted) still show up in my total number of comments written tally? (I guess this has to do with how the tables are setup, where the comments are stored, and how exactly the tally is kept.) (Reply to this) (Thread)(Expand)

	Re: Curious emmavescence 2002-01-05 08:16 pm UTC (link)
	im guessing (it really is a guess, i have no basis in fact at all, so therefore feel free to ignore me completely) that it would still count in the tally. what about if you make a comment... then delete it. does that still count in the tally? what about journal entries? interesting questions :) (Reply to this) (Parent)

Re: Curious - bradfitz, 2002-01-05 08:25 pm UTC (Expand)

Maybe I missed this in the scanning, but... eideteker 2002-01-05 08:23 pm UTC (link)

Why not also e-mail the dormant accountholders? Some, I'm sure, would be happy to have their dormant journals deleted. I know there are a bunch of people who have lost their passwords/access to their e-mail address and have thus locked themselves out of their account. Now they can at least have the name back (and they'll hopefully have backed the old journal up). If people reply to the e-mail, they can keep the account, even if it's been dormant for 25+ weeks. It's a one-time thing; will it be a strain on the servers too much? I'm excited about the clustering. =) (Reply to this) (Thread)(Expand)

Re: Maybe I missed this in the scanning, but... mtbandit 2002-01-05 08:41 pm UTC (link)

He didn't say dormant accounts, he said deleted ones. And if I recall correctly, there is a warning/notice that the deleted account will be permanently removed in 30 days. So really, the only people who are "using" a deleted account for something else are just taking advantage of a loophole and IMO this warning isn't really necessary anyway. But I guess Brad doesn't have the BOFH gene. (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)(Expand)

Re: Maybe I missed this in the scanning, but... - hamsterhuey, 2002-01-05 08:50 pm UTC (Expand)

Re: Maybe I missed this in the scanning, but... - eideteker, 2002-01-05 08:50 pm UTC (Expand)

Re: Maybe I missed this in the scanning, but... - chicaboo25, 2002-01-05 11:38 pm UTC (Expand)

Re: Maybe I missed this in the scanning, but... - colin, 2002-01-05 10:18 pm UTC (Expand)

Re: Maybe I missed this in the scanning, but... - axiem, 2002-01-05 11:07 pm UTC (Expand)

Re: Maybe I missed this in the scanning, but... - eideteker, 2002-01-06 06:46 am UTC (Expand)

Re: Maybe I missed this in the scanning, but... - emilicious, 2002-01-06 07:28 pm UTC (Expand)

	Yay! ex_dreamcatc6 2002-01-05 08:40 pm UTC (link)
	*Cheers* Finally! But uhm, how will you tell the squatters from the non-squatters too? (Reply to this)

	goldenhoney 2002-01-05 09:16 pm UTC (link)
	i have a question....suppose the person who has marked their account for deletion was an active user with entries and what not....and they left a lot of comments...will their comments be deleted too? also....i know that brad hasn't written about this in the post above....but people are talking about it here....are dormant accounts going to be deleted or not? thanx (Reply to this)

jillw 2002-01-05 09:47 pm UTC (link)

Obviously, I am biased as I want the account "jillian" for my own. Who wouldn't? It's obviously an AWESOME name that I would enjoy having. My question, to the very busy bradfitz, is whether or not you are going to delete the accounts that have been neglected for a while. I noticed that /jillian has been neglected and I noticed others talking about it in the above posts. And if you are, how do I go about making my dibbs on it? I have probably close to 40 codes now. I help lots. What else can I be doing? Or are you even going to offer those accounts? (Reply to this) (Thread)(Expand)

	dakus 2002-01-05 11:23 pm UTC (link)
	I love that name... ;>) (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)(Expand)

Re: - jillw, 2002-01-06 06:05 pm UTC (Expand)

(no subject) - therealocelot, 2002-01-06 10:45 pm UTC (Expand)

	welshmaidn 2002-01-05 11:57 pm UTC (link)
	I would suggest e mailing the deleted accounts and letting them know they have until february 1st or (pick a date) give them a reminder notice. Of course, if you haven't brought back your deleted acount in the past 30 days, it's doubtful you would bring it back. Some people DO delete their accounts temporarily for various emotional reasons (at least that's what they say). (Reply to this)

	since you asked.... :) femakita 2002-01-06 01:24 am UTC (link)
	I wasn't going to post this warning, but Evan said some people delete their accounts for purposes other than deleting their accounts. (whatever that is?) Drama queens. "sigh I'm so TRAUMATIZED by YOU PEOPLE that I'm just going to DELETE my whole journal altogether sigh" (then they get over it and undelete it like, 2 weeks later) (Reply to this) (Thread)(Expand)

	sirthorn 2002-01-06 08:22 am UTC (link)
	But without drama queens, what would the rest of us have to do for entertainment? Besides, drama is life. (So says the A&E channel, anyway.) (Reply to this) (Parent)

Re: since you asked.... :) - emilicious, 2002-01-06 07:30 pm UTC (Expand)

Re: since you asked.... :) - cooan, 2002-01-07 02:15 am UTC (Expand)

Re: since you asked.... :) - seigebell, 2002-03-22 11:45 am UTC (Expand)

	Eep. aiko 2002-01-06 03:11 am UTC (link)
	*hugs Evan* God bless than boy ^_^;;;. After this mass-deletion, will you continue to delete after every 30 days or will you leave "deleted" accounts as is? Thanks.. these things are nice to know ^_~. (Reply to this)

	jimmy4eyes 2002-01-06 05:49 am UTC (link)
	Too bad there's no provision for deleting journals that have had no activity for, say, 90 days or more. (Reply to this) (Thread)

sirthorn 2002-01-06 08:16 am UTC (link)

Why would that be a good thing? Some people go away for extended periods of time and have no access to the 'net while they're gone. The reasons behind this are numerous (school break, military service, house burns down, relocated overseas), so why should they get deleted when they're just on "extended away", so-to-speak? I understand about deleting accounts which were already marked for deletion, and anyone who whines about it when it actually does happen deserves a good dumb-and-dumber laugh in the face. (You exploit a bug in the system, can't complain when it's squished.) But I just don't see any reason for deleting inactive accounts. Some people are simply immmune to certain drugs. (And yes, LJ is a drug... and a potent one at that. Why do you think you need a prescription to get it these days?) (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)(Expand)

(no subject) - jimmy4eyes, 2002-01-06 05:50 pm UTC (Expand)

(no subject) - sirthorn, 2002-01-07 02:26 am UTC (Expand)

(no subject) - kibbles, 2002-01-07 02:11 pm UTC (Expand)

(no subject) - amythyst, 2002-01-13 02:28 pm UTC (Expand)

(no subject) - landale, 2002-01-10 03:49 am UTC (Expand)

(no subject) - i_sparafucile, 2002-01-06 11:07 pm UTC (Expand)

(no subject) - therealocelot, 2002-01-06 11:08 pm UTC (Expand)

Here's an issue... xenofalcon 2002-01-06 08:34 am UTC (link)

Suppose that person x has made several comments in various journals under a certain username. Person x then decides to delete their journal, and never returns to the magical land of LiveJournal. The account is then purged. Person y wanders on in and signs up for that same username. What happens to all of those old comments? The only way people will be able to tell if person y made a certain comment in the past (as opposed to person x having made it when they had the account) is to go to the user info and see when the journal was created versus when the comment was made. Assuming that the comments made by person x are not purged with the account when it is deleted, should there be a way of noting that a comment was made while the journal was owned by somebody other than the current user? (Reply to this) (Thread)(Expand)

	Re: Here's an issue... digipete 2002-01-06 10:23 am UTC (link)
	An important question, it was discussed a little while back in lj_dev here. I am partial to backslash's idea that deleted userIDs stay in the table (with statusvis='D'), and any comments that belong to that userID are labeled with [Deleted user: Was username]. Of course this requires a little code change to talkpost/read. (Reply to this) (Parent)

Re: Here's an issue... - digipete, 2002-01-06 10:57 am UTC (Expand)

Re: Here's an issue... - bradfitz, 2002-01-06 11:01 am UTC (Expand)

Re: Here's an issue... - paranoidandroid, 2002-01-21 11:37 am UTC (Expand)

Re: Here's an issue... - bradfitz, 2002-01-06 11:01 am UTC (Expand)

	I have a question. bair 2002-01-06 10:35 am UTC (link)
	I will be deleting two journals by the end of the day. Is this thing your doing a one time thing or are you going to schedule it on a regular basis from now on? Just wondering. :) (Reply to this) (Thread)

	Re: I have a question. bradfitz 2002-01-06 11:00 am UTC (link)
	Daily. (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)(Expand)

Re: I have a question. - bair, 2002-01-06 11:51 am UTC (Expand)

Say No To LJ Pollution - seigebell, 2002-03-22 11:55 am UTC (Expand)

Re: I have a question. - emilicious, 2002-01-06 07:32 pm UTC (Expand)

Re: I have a question. - bradfitz, 2002-01-06 07:48 pm UTC (Expand)

Re: I have a question. - emilicious, 2002-01-06 07:54 pm UTC (Expand)

	mickeymouseinoz 2002-01-06 01:28 pm UTC (link)
	How about people who are parking on names? For example a person who created an account 10 months ago using a popular name and have never posted. I can only imagine that they may want to trade LiveJournal names in the future which seems to me to be against the spirit of this site. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	mart 2002-01-12 10:49 am UTC (link)
	It's more likely that they just created account and then lost interest, leaving the username in use. You might even find that they never identified their email so their account will vanish anyway. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	banana 2002-01-06 03:38 pm UTC (link)
	What happens to the deleted users' comments? If someone commented on me and deleted, will their comments go? (Reply to this) (Thread)

	brad 2002-01-06 03:40 pm UTC (link)
	No. Comments stay. (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)(Expand)

(no subject) - banana, 2002-01-06 03:42 pm UTC (Expand)

(no subject) - bradfitz, 2002-01-06 03:50 pm UTC (Expand)

(no subject) - banana, 2002-01-06 03:51 pm UTC (Expand)

(no subject) - mart, 2002-01-12 10:50 am UTC (Expand)

kibbles 2002-01-07 12:40 am UTC (link)

A reason for deleting an account other than wanting it to go away is the tedium of making all entries private, or friends only, one post at a time. I have to make my 'friends only' posts 'private', because originally the journal was a one on one with a friend of mine. I couldn't use the friends groupings because I have a Mac, and at the time the Web client wouldn't let you post to a group of friends, just friends, private, or public. (Now there is a Mac client that does the trick, as well as a web client.) I shut my journal down for a few days because I also wanted to futz with some public posts as well. . .but it is the only way to get everything private at once. I know others who did this as well, shut it down so they could change the privacy levels of stuff on their journals, as there is no other way to do it, unfortunately. (Personally, I have a little over two more months to go, as far as that is concerned.) (Reply to this)

	user id #s? cooan 2002-01-07 02:20 am UTC (link)
	what happens to the user id #s? does everyone shift downward, or is it like deleted userpics where the # is there, but nothing's associated with it any longer? not that it's important or anything. i'm just curious. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	Re: user id #s? mart 2002-01-12 10:51 am UTC (link)
	ID numbers for things are never reused. (Reply to this) (Parent)

myso 2002-01-07 10:13 pm UTC (link)

I accidentally deleted my journal and have tried many times to get it back by changing it to activated and clicking save. I also have tried many times to delete the link on the profile page and it is still there. I am so upset cus I love my journal and want it back and I want that link taken off. Can you please help me???? Please?????? I need my journal back and I am so stressed out cus no matter how many times I try, it is still not coming back. HELP ME PLEASE ????????? (Reply to this)

	The faith of the ((Used) Invitation) Codes... freso 2002-01-08 07:08 am UTC (link)
	And what about having ppl you've used your spare codes to invite onto LJ, and they then * their name up (or actually... LJ changed a '-' to an '_', but he didn't know that >.<)... will that code of mine be freed, so that he can make a new account with the name he wanted? (Reply to this)

	illumine 2002-01-08 08:58 am UTC (link)
	Once a username has been fully deleted, how long does it take for the name to become available again? (Reply to this)

	I ACCIDENTALY DELETED MY JOURNAL..BUT I WANT IT BACK asxstarsxfade 2002-01-09 05:51 pm UTC (link)
	I WANT THE SAME USERNAME.. THATS MINE.. I JUST ACCIDNETALLY CLICKED ON DELETE.. BUT I WANT IT BACK.. PLEASE IS THERE ANY WAY I CAN GET IT BACK.. CAN U EMAIL ME AT XASXSTARSXFADEX@AOL.COM (Reply to this) (Thread)

	Re: I ACCIDENTALY DELETED MY JOURNAL..BUT I WANT IT BACK asciident 2002-01-11 03:32 pm UTC (link)
	If it has been less than 30 days, go to http://www.livejournal.com/modify.bml log in or click proceed, scroll to the bottom and change the status back to "Active" If it's been more than 30 days ... it's probably deleted. (Reply to this) (Parent)

Question bertho 2002-01-10 11:09 pm UTC (link)

I ran across a link today to an old post made by ihatebrad (from a post in learn_support) and when I went to check out the journal, it said it had been deleted and purged and the username would soon be available. My question is, what's going to happen to that post (or my lj user tag here)? When the journal is officially gone and taken by someone else, will my lj user tag refer to the new owner of the username and will the post be on their account until they go through and delete it themselves? I thought the weirdness involved in this stuff was why you didn't delete accounts and recycle usernames in the first place. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	Re: Question mart 2002-01-12 10:53 am UTC (link)
	Links and user tags will, unfortunately, break. That's just unfortunate. (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)(Expand)

Re: Question - bertho, 2002-01-12 01:39 pm UTC (Expand)

Re: Question - mart, 2002-01-13 05:53 pm UTC (Expand)

Re: Question - bertho, 2002-01-13 06:25 pm UTC (Expand)

Re: Question - mart, 2002-01-14 02:35 am UTC (Expand)

	believer 2002-01-11 02:31 pm UTC (link)
	i modified my journal and when i was done my emoticon was gone and i couldn't find it in the choices of emoticons. it was the cutest and if you could get that back for me that would be great, thank you. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	asciident 2002-01-11 03:31 pm UTC (link)
	That mood theme, Candi's Kao Ani, was removed due to a claim of copyright infringement. As people modify their journals, it will eventually be completely gone from the system. Sorry. (Reply to this) (Parent)

---